Hi all,
After a few years of life getting in the way, I’ve finally decided to start rebuilding my MPCNC, using the newer Primo design. My original MPCNC from November 2019 had a lot of success, but the printed parts have been sitting idle for too long, and I’m worried about their condition after all this time. I’ve always been a fan of the Primo design and am excited to dive back into the build.
For this rebuild, I’m going with a 18"x18" work envelope, dual endstops, and mounted t-rails. The spoil boards will be locked in between four rails, and I’ve added a “hole” under the middle spoil boards for taller specific milling jigs that I plan to use for some deeper cut jobs.
I’ve just started printing and have 20 pieces done so far using PLA material on my Ender 3 v3 SE. I’m also thinking of repurposing an old HP Pavilion 10" netbook with Linux to control the machine, so any advice on that setup would be appreciated.
I’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice from those who have been through this rebuild or who have suggestions after not using the machine for a few years.
A linux will host klipper nicely, but you can use octoprint and marlin if you’d rather. What control board do you have? I help with the former. Most everyone else can help with the latter.
The rambos predate my experience here. Don’t they have a limited number of drivers and run the steppers in series? This doesnt allow the auto squaring possible with dual endstops, but does make the setup simpler and functional if built square.
Your call on your desired level of automation. I like the ability to interact with the cnc from my phone or from my laptop or desktop sll at the same time if i want. I can upload new gcode from any machine on the local network. No sd card required and i can make custom buttons run macros thag i choose. To do this. You have a couple options
When i started out i just needed it to cut. Cutting is great and the rambo will do that. If you want to update, you could consider a jackpot. You and your budget may have an ideal scenario. What are your thoughts?
If I remember correctly, the board had the functionality for the dual endstops, which I got with the kit (but never set up).
That being said, the functionality you mentioned with the newer hardware sounds amazing to me, so upgrade I shall!
For all of the functions you just teased me with, what hardware did you have to get?
Jackpot board with 5 drivers runs FluidNC and uses a small esp32. you can get one from the v1 shop and it will host its own wifi or join yours depending on how you set it up. This is the supported way and would be recommended.
Use your rambo but put klipper on your linux box and run it that way. If you have 5 drivers and enough input pins, the linux machine acts as the server and hosts the web page and sends code to the controller. You don’t have to buy new hardware, you just have to set it up. It will take some time. Use the linux machine you have as the primary interface and controller that drives the control board. Start by installing git, cloning the kiauh repo, install klipper, mainsail, moonraker, and crowsnest. In the advanced option to compile firmware for the board you have and then with a web browser, load the IP address of the linux machine and see if you like it. The sweat equity is mapping out the pins you will use and getting those into the printer.cfg file. The good news is when the config isn’t quite right, it tells you where and you can go fix it.
You can buy a skr pro / turbo / or other 5 channel controller. (I use an old 5 channel board with 2 bad channels and a newer 4 channel together to make up 5 channels) then similar to #2 for setup.
If you go #1, it will be pretty quick to set up. #2 and #3 are less supported (I’ll help you) and it will probably force you to learn more about klipper than you might want, but once it works, it is pretty cool. You could go with 2 for minimal outlay in parts or with #1 and be up and running quickly after your order arrives.
